Archive for category: Education

Information and stories on education.

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George Mason University Professor Researches Obesity in Kenya

George Mason University Professor Researches Obesity in Kenya

For more than 10 years, Dr. Constance Gewa, a George Mason University professor and nutrition expert, has researched food security in her home country, Kenya. With each study, she has shined a light on different aspects of nutrition for women and children in the country. In 2019, when she returned for further research about obesity in Kenya, she came with more than questions — she brought some answers, too. 

Although Kenya has the classification of being a low-income country, the number of citizens struggling with obesity in Kenya is beginning to rise. This comes as a result of globalization and a growing international market. According to Gewa, Kenya is experiencing a nutritional transition as the country is importing more than it is exporting. Having previously survived on its own market and agriculture, Kenya now stocks stores with cereal, instant noodles, chips and cookies. These foods have cheaper prices and are extremely accessible to children, whose schools often provide them. However, they can also lead to obesity. 

Childhood Obesity in Kenya

In 2009, Gewa published a study titled Childhood overweight and obesity among Kenyan pre-school children: association with maternal and early child nutrition factors that addressed Kenya’s need to prevent overnutrition as well as treat malnourishment. Of the almost 1,500 children aged 3 to 5 whom she studied, Gewa found 18% to be overweight and 4% to be obese.

This may be due to mothers’ nutrition. A child whose mother is overweight due to a poor diet is 83% to 112% more likely to become obese. Gewa found that factors such as the duration the child exclusively breastfed were also important. She determined that children who solely breastfed for more than 24 months had a 45% decrease in obesity risk. In other cases, a mother believes that breastfeeding will not nourish her child enough and prematurely introduces other foods into the child’s diet. Popular alternatives to breastmilk include infant formula, solid food like bananas and rice as well as cow’s milk. All of these foods are too high in calories for the child, resulting in weight gain.

Mothers with a lower income and education are more likely to breastfeed, and therefore give their child a lower risk of becoming obese. A mother with primary or higher education will typically have a higher income, allowing her to purchase other foods to supplement breastfeeding. However, this does not mean that children living on a lower income are immune to the dangers of obesity in Kenya. Processed and fried foods are becoming cheaper and more accessible. Some Kenyans have explained that french fries and donuts are cheaper than fresh produce, and they cannot afford to prioritize nutrition.

Breastfeeding and Traditional Food

In 2016, Gewa published two papers. The first investigated maternal knowledge and the cessation of breastfeeding. From this study, Gewa concluded that early breastfeeding practices, a mother’s understanding of the recommendations regarding breastfeeding, the health of the child as well as the mother and social acceptability all determine how long a mother exclusively breastfeeds. If a mother is knowledgeable of the benefits of breastfeeding and feels comfortable breastfeeding at home and in public, she is more likely to breastfeed for a longer duration.

Gewa’s second 2016 study examined maternal beliefs and accessibility to indigenous and traditional food. Her research indicated that less than 60% of Kenyan mothers consumed indigenous traditional foods (ITF), but 52% wished they could eat more of this food. They attributed their lack of ITF consumption to inaccessibility, high prices and poor taste. Gewa stated that when Kenyan health officials discuss food security, they must consider both malnourishment and obesity to avoid “moving from one problem to another.”

Reducing Obesity in Kenya

From these studies, Gewa argues that education on proper nutrition and efforts to make healthy foods affordable are necessary to reduce obesity in Kenya. She used this knowledge to return to Kenya and use her research to spark change. On her return to Kenya, Gewa said, “It is important for study participants and communities to become aware of the research findings because they are stakeholders. I believe that sharing research findings motivates community ownership and participation in identifying solutions.” When Gewa met with the people represented in her study, they were surprised and grateful for her return — they told her no one had ever come back before.

To Gewa, the research is just the beginning. In addition to analyzing obesity in Kenya, Gewa’s work calls for discussion and works with those directly affected to create a greater impact. Local health officials and Kenya’s administration have found an open channel of communication with their constituents through Gewa’s research. While obesity in Kenya remains an issue, it is encouraging to see these steps in the right direction toward health and nutrition prioritization.

 – Alexa Tironi
Photo: Flickr

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Innovations in Poverty Eradication in Canada

Poverty Eradication in CanadaThough a proportionally wealthy country, Canada struggles with a large amount of poverty. In 2018, the Government of Canada released Opportunity for All: Canada’s First Poverty Reduction Strategy. The report introduces strategies and tactics that the country intends to employ until 2030 to reach its goals. Concrete poverty reduction targets is one of the goals that includes a 20% reduction in poverty by 2020 and a 50% reduction in poverty by 2030. Canada’s Official Poverty Line is another goal set out to measure poverty and track progress towards the targets. It also plans on introducing a National Advisory Council on Poverty. All of these innovations would go towards poverty eradication in Canada.

The Council

The National Advisory Council on Poverty has helped the government move forward with their plan. The group has 10 members. Some of them actually confronted poverty in the nation themselves. In addition to those with lived experience, the council also holds members with expertise in community outreach, academia and prominent leadership. Annually, these members produce a report that helps the government understand the progress that has been made and what can still improve.

The Strategy

Beyond the council, the strategy also involved defining a poverty line for Canadians. Statistics Canada and Employment and Social Development Canada continuously review Canada’s Official Poverty Line. By using the Market Basket Measure, they are able to keep the measure accurate. Their various reports from 2018 to the present summarize government consultations on the matter. They also propose changes as to how to calculate the Market Basket Measure.

Canada’s Poverty Reduction Strategy also introduced 12 indicators of progress concerning its reduction. Some of the most notable include food insecurity, core housing needs and the share of youth engaged in employment, education or training at a given time. In order to ensure transparency on the progress the strategy is making, the government provides a website or “dashboard.” Citizens can use it to track all 12 of the Opportunity for All indicators as well as the poverty line itself. The site also lists future goals that Canadians can stay up-to-date on.

Government Programs

The Opportunity for All Strategy also connotes the bettering of government programs and investments that existed before 2015. Some of the most notable pre-existing involvement that the strategy emphasizes include Canada Child Benefit. This is a monthly, tax-free payment that assists low and middle-income families in raising children affordable. Another one is Canada Workers Benefit, a refundable tax credit with the purpose of supplementing the wages of low-income workers. Increase to the Guaranteed Income Supplement Top-Up Benefit is an initiative that helps improve the financial security of just under one million senior citizens. Additionally, Canada’s First National Housing Strategy is a plan spanning 10 years. Its goal is to provide more Canadians with suitable housing.

Charity and Aid

In addition to government efforts, many others are working on innovations in poverty eradication in Canada. One of the most successful charities working toward these goals is Pathways to Education, which provides financial support, social stimulation and academic rigor to youth in need. It has improved graduation rates by 85% in communities where its program has been offered. Canada Without Poverty is another charity that educates Canadians about the humanitarian and financial implications of living in poverty. It also identifies solutions regarding public policy and communication. Canadian citizens that broke out of poverty themselves run the organization, so they are well equipped to educate the public and connect with those in need. Furthermore, True North Aid is a charity that looks to close the poverty gap faced by Northern Indigenous communities in Canada. It does this by launching projects with initiatives in improving water supply, education, housing and the like.

 

Overall, innovations in poverty eradication in Canada are highly successful. With government planning along with cooperation from and communication with the Canadian public, a decline in the poverty rate has already taken place and seems as if it will continue in the coming years.

– Ava Roberts
Photo: Flickr

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Family Legacy Combats Child Poverty in Zambia

child poverty in ZambiaZambia is a landlocked country that lies between Southern and Central Africa. The majority of Zambia’s 17.5 million population is under the age of 18, and over half of the population earns below the international poverty line of less than $2 per day. According to the World Bank, the estimated median age is 16.7, making evident the country’s severely imbalanced dependency ratio. This means that the dependent population (younger than 15 and older than 65) is much larger than the workforce can adequately support. While in the past few years Zambia has made progress in increasing access to nutrition and education, children in Zambia still lack a variety of necessities. In Zambia, 45.4% of children live in extreme poverty and 800,000 children still do not attend school.

What Is Family Legacy?

Family Legacy is a nonprofit organization based in Irving, Texas that seeks improvement in both of those areas for the most affected children of Lusaka, Zambia. In a variety of ways, the organization aims to reduce child poverty in Zambia by ensuring that these children have the opportunity to attend school. There, they get one hot meal every day and extra food to take home when they have good attendance. “This makes the parents more likely to let the kids go to school, and not be forced to work,” a Family Legacy volunteer said.

What Is Being Done to Fight Child Poverty in Zambia?

Family Legacy has four programs to meet its goal of alleviating child poverty in Zambia. The first, Legacy Academy, focuses on the Academics pillar, one of the organization’s four pillars of care. This main school program ensures that the children it serves receive primary and secondary education with all the necessary materials. The second program, Tree of Life, focuses on the physical and emotional pillars. Tree of Life is a residential community that provides children who have been through physical or emotional trauma with a safe place to live while they attend school. The third program, Excel Beyond, also focuses on the academics pillar. This program is designed to support the high school graduates of Legacy Academy while they build the foundation of a successful career. Finally, Camp Life represents Family Legacy’s spiritual pillar. The week-long experience seeks to bring hope and emotional growth to the Academy students.

Family Legacy’s success can be attributed to its three-tier approach, combining education, nourishment and the inclusion of benefits to the families of these children in need. The organization’s programs saw a ninth grade completion rate that was 18% higher than the national average last year. In addition, it has 156 students currently pursuing higher education. To help with curbing hunger in Zambia, Family Legacy distributes 4 million meals annually.

What Can We Do to Help?

Family Legacy’s progress is achieved via activities in multiple parts of the globe. In Dallas, volunteers pack meals, distribute clothes, gather supplies and find sponsors. Sponsorships are programs in which a family or individual provides the financial means for a child in Lusaka to attend school and receive meals and extra food. In Lusaka, volunteers make up the summer staff of Camp Life, participate in medical internships, assist with the graduation ceremonies of Tree of Life and Legacy Academy and participate in activities with the other Tree of Life children. Beginning to get involved in the fight against global poverty seems like a daunting task, but Family Legacy makes it easier than ever to fight child poverty in Zambia.

– Carolina Larracilla
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

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3 Countries Where the Marist Brothers Help Children

the Marist Brothers
Saint Marcellin Champagnat formed the Institute of the Marist Brothers in 1817 with the mission of helping poor and marginalized children around the world. The community of Marist Brothers has now grown to include almost 3,000 members. In 2007, in the spirit of Champagnat’s vision, the Congregation of the Marist Brothers of the Schools established the Marist International Solidarity Foundation (FMSI) in Rome. Its mission is to provide quality care and education for all children. Today, the foundation directly improves the lives of more than 650,000 youth around the world. It does so through its presence in educational, social and youth centers. Three of FMSI’s important mission projects are in Ghana, Haiti and Lebanon.

Ghana: Marist Junior High School

With a fast-growing youth population, experts claim that Ghana has a unique opportunity to utilize its “demographic dividend” as a positive force for its society and economy. Without a strong educational system, however, the growing demographic could exacerbate the country’s poverty. Problems in the Ghanaian educational system, especially in rural settings, include shortages of qualified teachers, adequate teaching spaces and school materials. Additionally, literacy and learning standards are low. Educational institutions struggle to provide quality, inclusive teaching across gender and socioeconomic disparities. Thousands of children drop out of school because their families cannot afford the economic burden.

Fortunately, the Marist Brothers have been quietly contributing to the betterment of Ghanaian education. In 1998, the Marist Junior High School emerged in Sabin-Akrofrom. In this rural area, families cannot afford the transportation costs to send their children to city schools. Since its establishment, the Marist Junior High School has taught more than a thousand students who would have not received schooling otherwise. Its students meet high academic standards, and the facility is now prominent for its effective, inclusive and quality education for children living in remote areas of Ghana.

Haiti: the Collège Alexandre Dumas

In Haiti, thousands of children do not receive an adequate education because families cannot afford to make such financial sacrifices. Because of this, child labor is widespread in Haiti. As of 2019, more than 34% of children between the age of five and 14 were in the labor force. Child labor drastically reduces children’s opportunities to go to school. The government is unable to enforce a minimum age requirement for its workers or prohibit the use of children for dangerous work. Children left at orphanages also often work in hard domestic work.

The Marist Brothers have taken action to advocate for child rights and reduce child labor in the region of Latiboliere. The mission of the Collège Alexandre Dumas secondary school is to improve the lives of children who are vulnerable to exploitation. After successful negotiations with children’s families, the Marist Brothers are now able to host 100 boys and girls per year. In addition to providing basic schooling, this program offers nutritional meals, medical care, and recreational activities like sports and arts. These activities contribute to the Haitian children’s academic, emotional and social advancements. Overall, the school reduces the labor exploitation of minors by educating their families on the importance of schooling.

Lebanon: the Fratelli Project

Lebanon also faces the issue of widespread child labor, which impedes youth access to school. Immigrant children, whose parents experience exclusion from the Lebanese labor market, are especially vulnerable to labor trafficking. They can receive less pay and employers do not require identification papers. However, Lebanese families living in the poorest areas of the country face similar problems to those of immigrant families. Thus, Lebanese child labor is also on the rise. This cycle forces children to become the only source of income for many poor families who cannot afford to lose their support by sending them to school. Consequently, even the children enrolled in an educational institution have poor levels of attendance when due to seasonal labor.

The Marist Brothers’ school, Les Frères, has been helping children in Lebanon since before the Lebanese civil war. Now, in cooperation with the La Salle Brothers, the Marist brothers in Lebanon have introduced a new educational project called Fratelli. The Fratelli project supports hundreds of Lebanese and refugee children who have fallen behind in school. It incorporates socio-academic and vocational training to help them reintegrate into the Lebanese education system. FMSI provides funds to buy school materials, pay activity costs and finance the enlargement of buildings to make Les Frères accessible to more children.

Ghana, Haiti, and Lebanon are just three of the 81 countries around the world where the Marist Brothers have improved children’s lives. By protecting the world’s children, the Marist Brothers are effectively protecting the world’s future.

– Margherita Bassi
Photo: Flickr

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How Sesame Workshop is Helping Syrian Refugees in Poverty

Syrian refugeesThe Syrian Arab Republic is a country in the Middle East with a rich and unique history that goes back as far as 10,000 years. More recently, political instability led to the Syrian civil war, which has created a humanitarian crisis that extends far beyond its borders. Syrian refugees are now found all around the world, having left their country fleeing the war. This has had a particularly severe impact on Syrian children.

The Syrian Refugee Crisis

Many Syrians have been forced to relocate in order to escape violence and the indiscriminate bombings of roads, schools and hospitals at home. The U.N. estimates that more than 6 million Syrians are displaced outside of Syria, while another 6 million have fled to other parts of the country. In the Northwest region of Idlib, nearly 900,000 Syrians have fled since December 2019.

Although many Syrian refugees have fled to overflowing refugee camps for temporary relocation and safety, others flee to unstable urban settings instead in the hopes of permanent relocation. As many as 70% of Syrian refugees are living in severe poverty.

This humanitarian crisis was recently worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. Syrian refugees’ need for food, medicine and access to clean water has increased. Delays in importing necessities has reduced refugees’ access to these essential items.

The Sesame Workshop: Helping Syrian Children

Of all humanitarian aid for the Syrian refugee crisis, only 2% goes to education. An even smaller chunk goes to support early childhood education. Considering that nearly half of all Syrian refugees are children, this aid is essential.

In 2017, the MacArthur Foundation provided the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Sesame Workshop with a $100 million grant to fund a childhood education program for Syrian refugees. The IRC is an international NGO that has been providing humanitarian resources in Syria since the conflict first began. Sesame Workshop, the creators of the Sesame Street educational program for children around the world, partnered with the IRC to create “Ahlan Simsim,” meaning “Welcome Sesame” in Arabic.

The show will reach Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon to provide the refugees in Syria and the surrounding countries with quality education. This new version of Sesame Street is provided in both Arabic and Kurdish.

“Ahlan Simsim” has three main characters. Basma is a six-year-old purple muppet with two pigtails. She loves to sing and dance and is best friends with Jad. Jad is also six years old and is a yellow muppet who just moved into the neighborhood. Finally, Ma’zooza is a funny and hungry baby goat who follows both Basma and Jad on their adventures.

These new characters start with the basics: they teach young refugees about fundamental skills, such as emotions and the alphabet. They help their young audience gain educational skills and understand the world around them in a nurturing way. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the IRC and Sesame Workshop are still providing technological learning opportunities, resources for local implementation and preschool spaces for safe learning and playing. They also continue to advocate for these essential education programs.

Moving Forward

The Syrian refugee population is considered to be the most displaced population in the world. At this point, there are many Syrian children who were born into the conflict and do not know a life without it. The IRC and Sesame Workshop are working to ensure that these children have a stable future in which their lives can be defined by new opportunities.

– Camryn Anthony
Photo: Flickr

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Students Learn Via Radio During Pandemic

Learn via Radio
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, about 297 million students in Africa—and 1.29 billion worldwide—have experienced school closures. These schools must quickly produce and distribute distance learning materials, often through online programs and television broadcasts. Students who lack television or internet access are at risk of falling behind. Therefore, many students from impoverished communities are at a disadvantage. However, according to UNESCO, 75% of all households worldwide have radio access. Similarly, nine out of 10 households have radio access in sub-Saharan Africa. Thanks to innovative groups like the Rwanda Education Board, students are able to learn via radio.

State, private and community radio stations have been airing educational broadcasts to make remote learning more accessible during the pandemic. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Okapi Ecole, a radio network that the United Nations sponsors, broadcasts educational programs for students in primary and secondary school twice a day. Students are also able to learn via radio in Peru; the “Aprendo en casa” initiative uses multiple platforms, including radio, to teach lessons on math, Spanish, art and other subjects. This article will provide more examples of the radio broadcast programs that have emerged to make learning engaging and equitable during the pandemic.

Literacy and Hygiene in Rwanda

Because of COVID-19 related school closures, 3 million students in Rwanda lack the option to attend school in person. In April 2020, the Rwanda Education Board started to broadcast radio learning programs. These broadcasts air for six hours every weekday and aim to improve literacy among students in primary school. Almost all children in Rwanda attend primary school; however, according to UNICEF, primary students in Rwanda “score too low in numeracy and literacy exams.” High-quality and widely accessible radio broadcasts can prevent students from falling behind on their literacy skills. As a result, students will be prepared to return to school. Additionally, UNICEF has partnered with the Rwanda Broadcasting Agency to broadcast literacy and numeracy classes across the country.

A series of radio dramas have also helped educate Rwandans about the importance of hygiene and how to reduce the spread of diseases like COVID-19. Young people wrote these plays and produced them alongside WaterAid, a nonprofit organization. Each of these plays broadcasted to about one-third of the country’s population, reaching millions of people.

UNICEF Funds Educational Broadcasts in Côte d’Ivoire

In March 2020, UNICEF provided Côte d’Ivoire’s Ministry of National Education with $70,000 for distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the help of this contribution, the Ministry introduced free educational radio and television broadcasts as part of its “Mon école à Maison,” or “My School at Home,” program. This program contains resources for students in preschool, primary school and secondary school. Unfortunately, gender inequality and poverty are high in Côte d’Ivoire. Programs like “Mon école à Maison” are ensuring that all students will be able to continue their education.

Rising on Air Initiative Reaches Students in Africa And Beyond

Rising Academy Network aims to improve the quality of schools in Liberia and Sierra Leone. The company is expanding its reach and curating its lessons to engage students during the pandemic. They have created a free resource for distance learning materials called Rising On Air. This distance learning tool shares lessons so millions of students can learn via radio and SMS. Rising On Air also provides a free 20-week program of lesson scripts and pre-recorded audio. These lessons are personalizable to fit educators’ specific goals. Lessons are available for students of all ages; there are programs designed for children aged three to five with a “family-child interaction component.” Rising On Air also offers literacy and numeracy classes for students from kindergarten to 12th grade. Furthermore, every lesson begins with a message about health and safety for students and their families.

UNICEF finds that “more than 50% of school-age children” in African countries have the resources to learn via radio. UNICEF also states that radio broadcasts have “an important role to play” in the COVID-19 education response. Rising Academy Network collaborates with organizations across the African continent and beyond. Additionally, Rising Academy Network partners with the governments of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Gambia, Chad and Guinea.

Conclusion

According to UNICEF, although “marginalized children are more likely to be in homes with fewer learning resources,” radio broadcasts have “the potential to reach almost all children, including the poorest.” Higher education rates directly connect to higher employment rates and reduced income inequality, as well as healthier and more democratic societies. Progress towards ending global poverty is at risk of unraveling. It is critical that students around the world have the opportunity to succeed in school. With the help of radio broadcasts, students in impoverished communities can continue to learn during the COVID-19 pandemic and return to school ready to move forward.

– Rachel Powell
Photo: Flickr

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Hugh Evans and His Battle Against Global Poverty

Hugh Evans
One of the most challenging aspects of charity work is getting the word out. Even in the era of social media, it is difficult to reach people and convince them to support a cause, especially during a global pandemic. Yet, music has the power to bring people together during divisive times. Global Citizen CEO Hugh Evans found a way to fuse music and charity together. By hosting concerts around the world, he has raised billions of dollars in the fight against global poverty.

Now 37, Hugh Evans was born in Melbourne, Australia. His goal in life is to eradicate global poverty completely, and he is confident that he can do it. Evans believes that people created poverty and that people can destroy it. In an interview for the Sydney Morning Herald, Evans noted that there are more than 2,000 billionaires in the world. If they each gave as much as Bill and Melinda Gates give, poverty would cease to exist completely. Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon, “could do it on his own.” But most billionaires are not pitching in enough, or at all. So, Evans calls for systematic change by engaging governments, corporations and ordinary non-billionaires.

Early Inspirations

In 1997, 14-year-old Hugh Evans went on a World Vision trip to the Philippines and saw extreme poverty first-hand. An extremely poor family hosted him. They slept on a concrete roof and had little to offer him besides a straw mat. Lying on that mat, watching cockroaches crawl around him, Evans realized that something needed to change. It was then that he decided to commit his life to ending poverty.

After returning from the Philippines, Evans earned a scholarship to study at an international school in India. There, he learned even more about global culture, language and poverty. He spent weekends doing charitable work in nearby slums or at a branch of Mother Theresa’s charity. Evans even took a gap year after high school to work with HIV/AIDS orphans in South Africa. By the time he was 20, he had a much more personal understanding of global poverty than most middle-class Australians will ever have.

Charitable Concerts

In 2006 and 2007, as a university student, Evans organized the Make Poverty History concerts in Australia, featuring Bono, the Edge and Eddie Vedder. Those concerts introduced him to the idea that celebrities could harness real power in the mission to end poverty. Since then, he graduated from Monash University with a science/law degree, got his master’s in international relations and founded Global Citizen. Through this organization, he has coordinated many more concerts around the world, including Together at Home, the live-streamed concerts during the COVID-19 quarantine. Rather than buying tickets, concert-goers must earn them by taking actions as members of Global Citizen. They can do so by signing petitions, contacting world leaders and taking quizzes to educate oneself about global poverty. These may seem like small feats, but advocacy and education are some of the most powerful weapons against global poverty.

Always a hard worker, Evans often endures long days and sleepless nights to organize charitable events, often under short notice. When COVID-19 began reaching countries that already struggle to meet healthcare needs, Evans and his team immediately started planning the Together at Home concert, which they were able to organize in just three weeks.

Inspiring Future Progress

In a world with constantly changing interests and opportunities, nonprofit organizations must work hard to continue attracting attention and fundraising effectively. Hugh Evans’s first-hand experience with poverty has successfully raised billions of dollars towards the fight against global poverty, and he is only 37-years-old. His establishment of Global Citizen is one of the most prominent triumphs in helping impoverished people all around the world. Not only does the organization provide the necessities for survival, but it also gives impoverished communities the tools to bring themselves and others out of poverty. It may have started on a straw mat in the Philippines, but Evans’s optimism and diligence have reached across borders and will continue to support the dignity, compassion and humanity necessary to end global poverty.

– Levi Reyes
Photo: Flickr

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Improving the Health of Children in the Marshall Islands

Children in the Marshall Islands
The Marshall Islands, located in the Pacific Ocean, have high poverty rates. Approximately 30% of the populations of Majuro and Ebeye, the Marshall Islands’ most populated territories, live below the poverty line. Meanwhile, 60% of the populations of the remaining 34 islands and atolls are impoverished. These conditions have left children in the Marshall Islands behind in terms of education, nutrition and growth.

History

Beginning in 1946, the United States used the Marshall Islands as a site for nuclear bomb testing for over 10 years. The 67 nuclear tests left the Marshall Islands with contaminated land areas and elevated radiation levels.

As a result, many residents live in small, overcrowded spaces. For example, in Ebeye, 10,000 of the total 55,000 Marshallese people reside in an area that encompasses less than a tenth of a square mile. This island has become known as the “slum of the Pacific,” but inhabitants fear to relocate due to contamination.

Effect on Children

These poor living conditions have had a large effect on the health of children in the Marshall Islands. According to a study conducted by UNICEF and the Marshallese government, over a third of children below the age of 5 are unable to grow and mature at a rate standard for children. This can be attributed primarily to malnutrition, which inhibits one’s intellectual and physical development.

The study concludes that reducing malnutrition levels within the Marshallese population may provide a series of benefits.  Most notably, these benefits would include the improved health of Marshallese children and improved economic conditions of the Marshall Islands due to a more prosperous upcoming generation.

Foreign Aid

Several organizations, including the World Bank, have made efforts to improve the current conditions that the people of these islands face. In 2019, the World Bank launched the Early Childhood Development Project in response to a request for aid made by previous Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine. The project focuses on improving the lives of children in the Marshall Islands by investing in education and healthcare.

Heine hopes this project will improve the overall quality of life in the Marshall Islands. “By investing in our children and ensuring they are afforded the best opportunities to learn and thrive, we are ensuring a sustainable and rich future for the Republic of the Marshall Islands.”

By the end of 2024, the Early Childhood Development Project aims to have enrolled 1,000 children between the ages of three and four in kindergarten, which is an addition of 762 students from their start in 2019. In terms of health improvements, the project hopes to provide essential health and nutrition services to at least 19,850 people. This is clearly a substantial improvement from the zero receiving similar services in 2019.

Moving Forward

This is only the beginning of helping the Marshall Islands recover from decades of poverty. Moving forward, it is essential that the World Bank and other humanitarian organizations continue to focus on improving the health of children in the Marshall Islands. These efforts are vital to the Marshall Islands’ ability to move towards a more prosperous future.

– Hannah Carroll
Photo: Flickr

Reforming Education in Nicaragua

Reforming Education in NicaraguaReforming education in Nicaragua has been a major focus of rehabilitation efforts over the past few years. Prior to 2015, there were over 800,000 people who were unable to read or write in Nicaragua. Because of the educational barriers that exist in the country, many students were kept from remaining enrolled at their schools or building the necessary confidence to pursue an education. However, over the past five years, Nicaragua’s Ministry of Education (MINED) has worked hard to create superior learning institutions so that Nicaraguan children can have a more accessible, comfortable and innovative education.

The Public Education System

Nicaragua is considered the most impoverished country in Central America. With the unemployment rate rising over 3% in the past five years, the government decided to implement concrete policies that could create enough incentives to keep people enrolled in school and pull them out of poverty.

In Nicaragua, education is not equally accessible to all, even though primary education is compulsory. The government has not yet found the necessary tools to instigate accessible community action and counter the factors that keep students from enrolling in primary or secondary education. Moreover, the struggle to enroll students is not the only obstacle the government faces as over 70% of Nicaraguan children drop out of school before they reach the sixth grade.

Un Ministerio en la Comunidad

The Ministry of Education has been working to improve its participation in society. The ministry’s motto is “un ministerio en la comunidad”, which is Spanish for “a ministry in the community”. The language employed suggests the active role MINED wants to establish in Nicaraguan society, including reforming education in Nicaragua.

In 2017, the government redirected approximately 4% of the entire national GDP to MINED. The repairs that have been done since then directly benefit countless public schools, especially in terms of providing better study conditions to the many children that go to these.

In 2020 alone there have been four reform initiatives focusing on infrastructure reconstruction, student hygiene and health, drug awareness and increasing disability awareness within school institutions and curriculum.

 Initiatives Taken by MINED

  1. Special Education Curriculum Strengthening: For many students with mental and physical disabilities, the traditional classroom setting and curriculum can be overly challenging and discouraging. Because of that many students are left hopeless and unable to learn, making it nearly impossible for them to get a job that pays a livable wage in the future. In February of 2020,  special education directors from Managua to Chontales met and discussed how to implement styling, cooking and music courses into their school curriculum so that disabled students can better adapt to school and to the job market.
  2. My Life Without Drugs Program: Drug use and addiction are one of the leading culprits of high school dropouts, leading many young Nicaraguans to stay in poverty for their entire lives. The Miguel Ramírez Goyena Institute held a drug awareness discussion in March of 2020 for grades nine to eleven, covering the kinds of drugs that are prominent in their community and teaching the students points of prevention.
  3. COVID-19 Health and Hygiene: MINED started as early as March 30 with COVID-19-focused prevention workshops. There have been several health and hygiene panels held to reinforce the awareness of COVID-19 and how to prevent it by washing hands, wearing facial coverings and social distancing students and staff. In addition to that, the Ministry put effort into bringing the digital wave to Nicaragua. According to the official data released, MINED created 23 mobile digital classrooms that help low-income students and educators alike have access to equipment such as tablets, printers, projectors and printers.
  4. Bertha Díaz Educational Center: On July 10, the reconstruction of the Bertha Díaz Educational Center in Managua advanced by 60%. The improved space exhibits a new roof, electrical system and 12 reworked classrooms. The project has taken five million córdobas or $143,856. MINED hopes to have the entire project done by the end of the summer so that the center is up and running for students in the fall.

What’s the Next Step?

The Nicaraguan government has a powerful Ministry of Education that is taking the broken Nicaraguan infrastructure by the horns and pushing full force for a brighter future for the young population. Out of the 6.1 million people living in Nicaragua, 40% of citizens are under the age of 15. Children are the future of Nicaragua and MINED knows that. Each week, new efforts are pushed by those in power towards reforming education in Nicaragua to help bring students to the top of their educational and mental potential. Additional financial support from outside nations will only help bolster the potential for Nicaragua’s students and allow the country to work its way out of poverty.

– Nicolettea Daskaloudi
Photo: Flickr

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5 Facts About School Fees In Africa

School Fees in AfricaSchool fees are a major barrier to widespread, effective education in Africa. Many children in impoverished families simply cannot afford to pay the required fees to attend school. As a result, they never receive a proper education. It is important to know basic facts about the issue because the first solutions that come to mind are not always the best ones. For example, removing fees altogether isn’t necessarily a solution because that can lead to overcrowded and underfunded schools. Here are five facts about the complicated topic of school fees in Africa.

5 Facts About School Fees in Africa

  1. School fees have been common in Africa since the 1980s. Structural adjustment programs in the 1980s urged schools to move to “user fees” to fund many public necessities, such as education, instead of paying for these necessities through taxes. Not long after fees were implemented, poor families began struggling to send their children to school. A 1986 study found that in 33 of 63 developing countries, the poorest 40% of families would have to spend over 10% of their yearly income to send two children to primary school. This statistic shows the harmful effects of the implementation of school fees on poor families in the 1980s. However, school fees in Africa today are still too high for many families to afford. Many children in Africa are not getting the education they need. For example, one out of every five children between the ages of 6 and 11 are out of school in Sub Saharan Africa. Between the ages of 12 and 14, the proportion increases to about a third. School fees contribute heavily to education exclusion. When fees are eliminated, African schools see a huge increase in pupils. For example, Kenya eliminated primary school fees in 2003 and as a result, enrollment rose by 2 million students.
  2. Yet, abolishing fees can cause further problems. When schools abolish fees, the immediate results are a drastic increase in students, as occurred in Kenya. This increase can be counted as positive. On the other hand, it can leave many schools without enough funding to support the new pupils. Space, supplies and teachers face the most stress from the increase in students. A 2015 study found that primary schools in Sub Saharan Africa that had fees also had a smaller student to teacher ratio. In many African countries, tax bases are small and the government alone is unable to financially support education; thus, the abolition of fees leaves some schools drastically underfunded. Dr. Jay Kaufman, who worked on a study about school fees in Africa, spoke to The Borgen Project about some of the issues that eliminating school fees caused. “Basically, in many countries that removed fees, there was no further investment in the educational system. So the result was classes jam-packed with students, many students sharing a single desk and therefore no successful education whatsoever,” Kaufman stated.
  3. Fees are only part of the problem. There are many more financial barriers keeping students out of schools in Africa. Many African schools require uniforms, and procuring them can be too high a cost for many families. The cost of books, school supplies and transportation can impede children seeking education as well. Additionally, having students in school and not in the workforce can put a financial strain on families, especially once their children reach their teens.
  4. COVID-19 could spark increased fee rates. Many African countries had high gross enrollment rates in the 1960s, 70s and early 80s. However, many of these rates had fallen by the mid-1990s due to economic downturns. Based on this trend, economic crises pose a threat to students who may already be struggling to pay fees. Given the economic fallout caused by the pandemic, many countries in Africa may struggle to maintain the same rates of funding to education. This could potentially result in increased fees. This, along with families’ inability to make money during the pandemic, could subsequently result in more students dropping out of school.
  5. Nonprofit organizations can provide long-term solutions. Aid For Africa is an alliance of NGOs working to support elementary school students financially in Burundi, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. BEADS For Education sponsors girls in Kenya from fourth grade through college, easing the financial burden on their families. Currently, the organization sponsors over 300 girls. The Maasai Girls Education Fund focuses on getting girls from the Maasai tribe in Kenya into schools. The organization provides these girls with scholarships to assure that they have the means to attend school.

Moving Forward

The exclusionary education caused by school fees in Africa is a complicated, multifaceted issue that does not have a single, clear solution. Nonetheless, it is a pressing issue that affects children across all of Africa. Knowing some key facts about the situation is essential if interventions are to be effective in opening up educational opportunities to impoverished children. Such knowledge is also key to making changes that are sustainable in the uncertain post-COVID-19 era.

– Sophia Gardner
Photo: Flickr